Wanderlust

Prologue

April 15, 2007 at 2:24 am gvblog 1 comment

I’m in New York on a segue between my life in San Francisco and the open road, which I’m planning to hit on Tuesday as long as the Nor’easter has passed through by then.  I don’t know if people on the East Coast always get this excited about weather, but they sure are worked up about this storm. I’m not planning to leave until after the storm passes – I just don’t think I want to start out my four month bike trip in the pouring rain. Weak, I know.  If I wasn’t camping for the first three days, I’d consider it.

 For the past two days I’ve been looking at graduate schools, trying to decide between NYU – The Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where I’d get an MA in the Politics of Sexuality Education and Reproductive Health Care, and Columbia, where I’d get an MPH in Sexuality and Health. It’s always interesting to be at points like this – the fulcrums of life where things hang in the balance, waiting to tip. There haven’t been many times in my life where one decision will affect the course of the rest of it, but this is one of them. That’s one of the reasons why I like studying history – to find those fulcrums, the points at which the history of the world has hinged on the decision of one person. The 2000 election comes to mind, when the decision of one Supreme Court justice handed the election to Bush and changed the course of human history. Think of that -if one of them had decided differently, Al Gore would have been President.

Depressing, isn’t it? Sorry. No more depressing hypothesis, I promise.

I’ve been exploring New York these last few days. You would think it would not be that complicated, seeing as how all the streets are numbered, but Downtown the grid breaks down and I’ve gotten on the wrong train more than once.  Being underground on trains makes me wish I was on my bicycle.  I went on a ride this afternoon through Central Park, which is completely closed to cars, and it was incredible. It reminded me of the ramblas in Barcelona, wide stately streets full of families and geriatric couples in their Sunday best, walking for walkings sake, seeing and being seen.  The sheer number of people in this city amazes me.  In San Francisco, there are lots of people in the parks, especially on sunny days, but it was never difficult to find a spot in Golden Gate Park where it felt like I was the only one there.  Are there places like that in New York?

I’m staying with some friends in Harlem, and there’s a square block a few blocks from their apartment that is given over to the East Harlem Little League Field and community gardens. Inside the gardens are these ramshackle structures that look like clubhouses. I can’t wait to find out what they actually are. 

Tomorrow I head to Princeton, New Jersey, from where I’m officially launching my bike trip. While I’m there I’m going to be meeting with Hi-Tops, a non-profit that trains peer health educators in the area.  It will be my first meeting, and I’m really looking forward to it.  I’ve been talking a lot about my trip with people I’ve met over the last few days, and I am more excited than ever about the opportunity to talk to people from across the country about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.  I’m just hoping it gets warmer as I travel up the Eastern Seaboard -I’m not looking forward to camping in snow. 

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